


"Don't try to fix me."

by sshysmm



Category: Lymond Chronicles - Dorothy Dunnett
Genre: Alternate Universe - 1980s, Alternate Universe - Rock Band, Ficlet, Gen, Implied/Referenced Drug Addiction, Light Angst, Prompt Fill, Tumblr Prompt, the band Au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-02
Updated: 2020-03-02
Packaged: 2021-02-28 07:21:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 318
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22990018
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sshysmm/pseuds/sshysmm
Summary: Joleta's had a fall and Adam thinks he recognises something about the way she's coping - or not coping.Set in the band AU: Joleta is a bassist with Francis's band, St Mary's, and Adam's a keyboard player.Originally posted on tumblr.
Kudos: 2
Collections: Lymond fics set in the Band/'80s AU





	"Don't try to fix me."

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sirjohnsmythe (veneratedthrouple)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/veneratedthrouple/gifts).



“Don’t try to fix me. I’m not broken.”

Joleta swatted away the careful hand at her shoulder. Blood trickled down her leg from the cut in her knee and she sniffed and shielded her face with her hands.

“I didn’t say you were,” Adam Blacklock sighed.

She wished he wouldn’t stand right behind her like that. She could feel him looming over her, lank and always a bit hunched over himself. She knew he was an addict, and she knew she was not like him.

“I just tripped. I’m _fine_ ,” Joleta repeated.

The light behind her shifted as Adam leaned against the other side of the stairwell. “Yeah. Some things make it easier to ‘just trip’.”

There was a pause, where she could hear the fluorescent bulb above them struggle, and the pulsing noise of the dancing crowds and the music inside the venue grew like a heartbeat behind the wall.

Adam laughed first when he realised what he had said. “I mean. You know what I mean.”

Despite herself, Joleta let out a bubbling giggle of her own. She repressed it quickly. “ _No_ ,” she insisted. She swept her hair back, dabbed at her face to make sure it was dry, and stood up swiftly.

With poise and all the haughty insouciance her finishing school education could lend her, Joleta met Adam’s shadowed grey eyes. “I don’t know what you mean. I just caught my foot on the step.”

She swept up the concrete staircase past him, her fingers shaking, her mind latched hopefully on the pills left inside her jacket pocket. They would quickly help her forget this unpleasant encounter.

Standing outside the green room door, Joleta stopped to arrange herself. As though sympathy was something that adhered to her like filth, she brushed down her clothing, flipped her hair again, and cast one disdainful glare back at Adam, whose face was gaunt under the cold light.


End file.
